review: dodgem logic by alan moore and friends

Dodgem Logic by Alan Moore & friends

Alan Moore's fertile imagination together with his encyclopaedic knowledge, his philosophical thinking, anarchic politics and liberal humanism, not to mention his unconventional embrace of spiritual beliefs and sexual attitudes, have produced in one man the perfect creative storm. With the aptly named Moore you get quality and you get quantity. He found the right medium for his creative output in comics, and Moore is rightly regarded as the greatest living writer in his field. But comics have not been enough to sustain Moore's creative outpouring and so the man from Northampton has written prose and poetry, made music, performed readings and magical acts. And Moore is not an artist who takes kindly to being told what or what not to do, particularly by men in suits who run corporations and attempt to stifle creativity in the service of commerce.

Bearing all of that in mind, it should come as no surprise that Moore's latest creative venture finds him fronting an independently published underground magazine. Taking its lead from counter culture publications of the past, everything from the International Times to Oz to VIZ, Dodgem Logic is, as Moore himself says in his introduction in the first of the two issues to have been published so far, 'a trippy-looking underground mag with a self-confessed agenda of aggressive randomness'.

What that translates into is a mix of essays, comic strips, photo spreads and satirical and parodic odds and sods stapled between the covers of a glossy, though wantonly ramshackle magazine. There's also a local news insert for Northamptonites - and readers from other regions are invited to produce their own news inserts.

As with all good debuting publications, issues one and two come with free gifts: a CD of 50 years of Northampton music, on which Moore sings 'You Are My Asylum' with The Retro Spankees, and a comic book, 'Astounding Weird Penises', written – and drawn! - by Moore. All of the material is produced by Moore and by members of his community along with contributions from some of his professional pals, among them The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen illustrator Kevin O'Neill and Moore's wife and his Lost Girls artist, Melinda Gebbie.

Here's to a long and haphazard run for Moore's latest creative outlet.
Miles Fielder

Dodgem Logic by Alan Moore and friends (Knockabout) £2.50